Captaincy General of Cuba

The Captaincy General of Cuba was a Spanish colony in the Caribbean which existed from 1607 to 1898, with Havana serving as its capital. The island of Cuba was conquered by Diego Velazquez in 1510, and he founded Baracoa in 1511, Bayamo in 1513, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, and Havana in 1514, and Camaguey and Santiago in 1515. In 1607, King Philip III of Spain separated Cuba from the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo to become its own province, and, in 1650, Cuba received a large influx of refugees when the English conquered Jamaica and expelled the Spanish residents there. From 1762 to 1763, the British occupied Cuba, later trading it back to the Spanish in exchange for Florida. With the independence of Santo Domingo in 1821, Cuba became Spain's main possession in the Caribbean, and the Spanish used a system of African slavery to work its plantation economy, which made Cuba one of its most lucrative colonies. By the mid-19th century however, an independence movement rose in Cuba, leading to the Ten Years' War, the Little War, and the Cuban War of Independence, the last of which succeeded with United States intervention in the Spanish-American War. In December 1898, Spain recognized Cuban independence.